


Window To The soul

by AgentRed



Series: One shots [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, One Shot, Wingfic, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:34:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24010633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentRed/pseuds/AgentRed
Summary: In a world where wings, that were quite frankly useless, show someone's wellbeing, there has to be a limit to how much they can express.Wrote randomly.Inspired by a fic that I read, I think it was Tony Stark centric. Idk.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Duke Thomas & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne
Series: One shots [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1722679
Comments: 2
Kudos: 82





	Window To The soul

Since he was young his wings were in tatters. There really was only one time they were healthy. They were something people used to show their wellbeing, how they've been treated and how they handled it. His had missing feathers, white primaries burnt at the tip. He hid them for soo long, even under the wing of the bat and his family. The rest showed their own. Alfred with similar burnt feathers but showing maintenance and healing, shiny and groomed. Bruce with twin scars on each, the loss of his parents right were they bent, marked with bullet holes. They reopened sometimes and his feathers often molted when the stress got to him but he always recovers, even if some of his feathers were forever crinkled. Barbara had missing primaries but they used to only have been cut, now torn out to leave room to grow as she worked as Oracle and recovered from loss of her capabilities. Dick's shone, twin cuts on the inner length of his wings healed and the burnt tips of his primaries healing from the fights he and Bruce had.

Jason only showed his when Catherine's mark had healed, a jagged scar along the whole length of his left wing hidden by fluffy feathers, groomed and showing some shine, even though the burnt tips didn't heal.

Then a chain of events. Hurting someone who deserved it made the burns recede some only to come back farther than before with Bruce's grounding. Then the discovery of Sheila ripped Catherine's scar open, a smaller scar he'd never noticed before itching parallel. Then the betrayal, his primaries and secondaries burnt soo far, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to reverse it. But he didn't even get to think of that much more as his hollow bones broke as his bodies bones shattered under the swing of a crowbar. Joker ordered him to keep them out so they both could see the damage. And he did, even after the madman left. He tried to escape, find Bruce but ticking made those bones piece his skin - and his feathers were soaked red now, he was done for, this was it.

He didn't have feathers when he emerged from the green pool of revival(nightmares) and the flesh began to rot as he trained, bones healed but darkening(burning) as he learned he'd been dead and replaced. He kept his wings to himself, even under the All Caste and Talia's searching gaze. 

By the time he took over crime in Gotham, only muscle and tendons were on his wings.

Then Joker and Bat's and there were slashes in those remaining pieces of his wings. Then... Then a batarang to his neck stripped his wings completely, now just blackened bone. He couldn't recover. There were no comparisons. Ra's had thrived with the pits influence but he just decayed. He should be dead.

Somehow, the family began to pull him into their flock.

Tim's wings were of crinkled and missing feathers, burnt and bleached but healing with the family. Stephanie's had only the slightest tinge of black but with her strength she recovered incredibly. Damian's reminded him of the Al Ghul's, held with pride but burnt secondaries told otherwise. Duke had well groomed and shiny feathers, only the slightest hint of soot peppering his outer feathers. Cass held wings almost completely blackened, secondaries torn out but slowly growing back.

Bruce didn't show his wings any more.

Even as he got better, his wings remained just bones jutting from his back but he no longer felt any connection to them. Like the scar on his neck, he moved on from them and tried to block any ill from them as he helped the family and got better.

Dick, Barbara and Alfred's feathers were worse than before but they kept healing when with everyone. He noticed Alfred's burnt primaries receding to just the tip while cooking with him and the shine that came about when Steph came crashing in as Damian chased her, despite the scolding. He noticed Barbara growing primaries gain another inch as he helped her track down hostages. He noticed Dick's shine return as he beat his older brother in a video game, despite losing.

It was going well.

Was until Joker gave Bruce a video tape.

It was a collaboration of their wings being destroyed and Joker hid something, one of them would know and understand within it. They all had to watch.

They watched as Barbara's primaries were cut, as Dick's bled from the failure to save an innocent, as Tim's was burnt, crushed, ripped out, dyed and bleached, as Damian's burns spread, as Alfred's crinkled. Joker tried to get almost everyone to show their wings while breaking them.

The worse came when Bruce's were slashed from wingtip to wingtip as Joker's maniacal laughter sang of his failure to save the boy. The boy he came next. A crowbar swung and blood and feathers spread along the floor, the feathers dissipating in a few seconds. Then the camera was adjusted to show the red wing spread out at the boys side, Joker cackling, saying for the boy to keep his wings out or it would get a lot worse. The boys other wing was bent at a horrible angle at multiple places, even where there shouldn't be a bend.

By the end, no ones wings held any shine, some worse than others.

"Wings."

Cass said it, eyes dark and face motionless as she spread out her wings.

"It has something to do with our wings."

Tim confirmed it, his own wings stretching out. Now green could be seen close to the roots, his feathers barely covering his scars. He'd never noticed how Tim always had his wings closed but he could see why. 

"B?" 

Dick's voice was hesitant as his feathers unraveled to their full length and the rest followed. All showing scars that he'd never noticed before. 

Bruce looked downward as his wings sprouted from his back, huge as before but bleeding and completely burnt, feathers twisted the wrong way and one wing falling limp at his side, bone snapped.

He looked away from it, feeling bile rise in his throat.

"Jaylad...?"

A sigh escaped, catching in his throat as he pointedly looked downwards and let the skeleton remains of his wings free from his back. Even the Bat training couldn't stifle the gasps.

"They won't ever heal, they've been like this for a long time."

He hoped they thought his death did it.

He had healed. 

These weren't his wings anymore.

He wasn't the boy anymore.


End file.
